Oct 16 2009

So close, yet so far

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

A moment of truth came down on Keith Olbermann and Alan Grayson last night. After playing Olberman’s usual game of ‘make a point then bring out a rent-a-pundit or a guest to agree with him’, the guest, congressman Grayson, was asked what to do about the Democrats who are, to say the least, as beholden to the health insurance companies as the Republicans.

Grayson, after a quick plug for campaign finance reform, and some harsh words for “the leadership”, who he says is letting other Democratic members of the Senate down, inched right up to the right answer and then backed off.


OLBERMANN: But there are so many Democrats who are almost as beholden as Republican senators and many Republican congressmen to the insurance lobby. What do we do about the-about the pervasive influence in terms of campaign funds that have afflicted some of these smaller senators, even on the Democratic side?

GRAYSON: Well, we need campaign finance reform. But right now, we need people to call. We need people to go send e-mails. We need people to go to Web sites. We need people to insist on justice for the public-and that means comprehensive, universal, and affordable health care in America.

OLBERMANN: For some reasons, Stephen Douglas’ words come to mind. Not Stephen Douglas, it’s Frederick Douglas’ words come to mind here-agitate, agitate, agitate.

GRAYSON: Right. That’s right.

To be clear, I had no expectations that the congressman would cross this line. It would be suicide if he did. But since I’m not a politician, I don’t have any qualms about telling the whole truth: what to do about Democrats who are beholden to insurance companies? MAKE THEM LOSE.

VOTE REPUBLICAN if you have to.

Make every one of those sorry pieces of shit lose in the next election. Yes, the Republicans may regain the majority. It will hurt badly.

BUT THEY WILL NEVER CROSS US AGAIN.

45 comments

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    • Edger on October 16, 2009 at 03:48
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    Show them who has the leverage and the power.

    Make them understand that they will be made to pay.

    The nice thing about doing it is that they will back down to keep their jobs because they need votes more than they need insurance company money.

    And by election day they will have passed whatever is demanded, and they can be re-elected as a reward for producing results.

    If they are made to understand that they will be made to pay.

    • BobbyK on October 16, 2009 at 04:20
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    and if there isn’t change I can believe in…I’m gonna stay mad!

    Right on Tocque.

    Right on Edger.

    • rossl on October 16, 2009 at 04:37
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    I’d say voting third party would be more productive.  At the very least, you make yourself into a swing voter that needs to be pandered to and make Democrats feel a bit less safe.  The original progressive movement was so successful because it was transpartisan and promoted heavily by third parties.  It was not beholden to party, like this progressive movement is.

  4. And still not address the root problem of campaign financing and the revolving door between industry, lobbies, and politicians.  

    Might as well be time to forget voting, forget elections, and solve the root cause.  If all those who understand that’s what is needed worked together, it could be done. Maybe.

  5. Progressive Democrats of America is organizing to replace Max Baucus.  It would feel good to get him out even though he will probably fall into a very cushy, well-paid job in the HC Industry.  

    For any interested, read this from PDA, click the PDA link in the DD sidebar and, voila, you’ll be working to get Baucus his next job with, perhaps, Wellpoint!

    Join the Challenge Max Baucus Campaign

    While there are plenty of members of Congress deserving of an electoral challenge because they refuse to acknowledge what most Americans support and want-Medicare for All–no one is more deserving than Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

    Baucus has refused to listen to his own constituents and refused to include doctors, nurses, and other supporters of Medicare for All in the Senate Finance Committee hearings–even arresting those who dared speak up.

    He is among the biggest beneficiaries in Congress of the healthcare corporations’ campaign contributions–and the most outspoken Democrat against Medicare for All.

    …snip…

    Max Baucus’ days are numbered . PDA will host our first conference call, on November 5, to challenge Max Baucus in the 2014 election–register here . Please join the Challenge Max Baucus Campaign , here; we’ve got five years to organize a grassroots campaign to defeat Max Baucus in his next election. We may be outspent, but we won’t be out-organized, if you join the Challenge Max Baucus campaign today.

    Montana state coordinator Margot Kidder is ready to lead the on-the-ground effort in Montana, but we need volunteers to phone bank, donate time to create materials, and recruit a viable candidate. And we’ll need help financially, too.

    PDA’s modus operandi is to fight for our issues, and if a member of Congress refuses to vote with us, our job is to run a progressive candidate against that member. Baucus deserves to lose his next election, and we’re the perfect organization to help him out the door.

    Like Toque says: If they don’t represent us, get rid of them.  Let’s start with Baucus, the campaign is already organized.

    • Robyn on October 16, 2009 at 05:57
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    …progress towards giving some of us some actually rights in this country, we should actually put the party in power which wants to up the ante on discrimination against us?

    Thank you.  Said just like someone who doesn’t have those issues…or any concern for them.

    • publicv on October 16, 2009 at 06:37
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    there is one that can prove they have our best interest at heart.

  8. is still my enemy… if they both desire to rob me blind, rape my children and spill my blood.

    They just choose different weapons, but their end game is the same. So . I wont vote FOR either of them.

    But you did say, Tocque, “if you have to.” So lets work towards making so that we dont have to. So that there are more choices, third party or better Dem challengers. Or something.

    Grayson’s latest…

    On Wednesday, he turned on one of his own: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Grayson gave a speech outside the Hart Senate Office Building, where Reid keeps an office, detailing the grievances that led Grayson to start a petition drive against the Democratic leader.

    “We the undersigned believe the time has come for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to get on with it,” the petition says. “For the last six months, Democrats have been dwelling, debating and hoping for Republican Olympia Snowe to vote for health-care reform. Why? Olympia Snowe was not elected president. … We stand with Alan Grayson and implore: What are we waiting for?“

    • Inky99 on October 16, 2009 at 07:56
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    second party.

    Right now there’s really only one party.

    • Heather on October 16, 2009 at 11:48
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    or don’t vote at all would be my choice if I was left with no other. The message would be clear and that’s what I think it would take to cut through the wall of cash and the tv megaphone used to keep that wall strong. A very clear message that cannot be misconstrued or punted around on the news shows’ “panel of experts” until it sounds nothing like it was intended.

  11. more sense then me calling up these assholes who no longer even bother with the pretense of representing us and begging them to give me an option to screw myself out of 15% of my already dwindling by 20% income. All politics all ideology are at this point totally irrelevant. Weather your a tea bagger or a progressive makes no difference as your playing on a total illusionary field and the too big’s and their enforcers the government, which just divey up the loot and get the suckers to play along. I’m at a point where it is no longer possible for me to believe that even if the Democrats fall something better would replace it. The whole fucking thing is an illusion I think the only hope is too leave it alone totally and get out of the way cause when dinosaurs fall they’ll squash you. Why try to change something that doesn’t exist anymore if it ever did. I may be a fighter but I’m tired of being a fool. I’m keeping my powder dry until the smoke and mirrors come down.

    “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

    You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last

    But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast

    Yonder stands your orphan with his gun

    Crying like a fire in the sun

    Look out the saints are comin’ through

    And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

    The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense

    Take what you have gathered from coincidence

    The empty handed painter from your streets

    Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets

    This sky, too, is folding under you

    And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

    All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home

    Your empty handed armies, are all going home

    Your lover who just walked out the door

    Has taken all his blankets from the floor

    The carpet, too, is moving under you

    And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

    Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you

    Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you

    The vagabond who’s rapping at your door

    Is standing in the clothes that you once wore

    Strike another match, go start a new

    And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.

    Bob Dlyan

       

  12. you have to vote Green.  It’s America’s legitimate third party.

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